lee_loreya, you named so many good and classic ones. I like pear with, really, a lot of cheeses. But I guess my favorite combo is a smooth creamy bleu with toasted pecan halves. I also like it with a very thin slice of crisp pear with a bit of the cheese and a pecan half on top.

A cheese I've recently fallen in love with is Mimolette. Do you know it? It's a hard French cheese with a round rind that looks like a cantalope. I don't even know if it's a cow or sheep milk cheese but it has a sharp flavor that bursts in your mouth.

I love St Nectaire. Unfortunately it is not available in New Zealand. When I'm in Paris my first stop is always Gallaries Lafayette to get some St Nectaire. I have found it in Australia at the wonderful deli at Main Beach on the Gold Coast.

Brie with grapes in my favourite combination. I also make a salad of mesculan salad leaves, sliced pear, blue cheese and walnuts which is a wonderful combination of flavours._________________Barbara

Yes, Mimolette, apart from having a very cute name, is that bright orange cheese that looks a bit like colored parmesan.
I like cutting slivers of that kind of hard cheese with those special cheese cutters, on a bed of roquette. Very elegant.
But it doesn't have such a powerful taste to me. It's almost a breakfast cheese you know? Or perhaps it's just that my palate is accustomed to daily amounts of all kinds of cheese.

Actually my love for st nectaire comes from this one time I was in a restaurant in Bretagne where they had this four course meal and we arrived early and it was empty. I wanted to opt for the safe plate of cheese (multiple choice is always a good option) but this attractive young waiter that looked like colin farrell said that st nectaire was his personal fave. Since that I just cherish every bite
Hum. I suppose it is ridiculous, but I also love the slightly nutty flavor to it.

I love pecans but it's very expensive here, so I have to stick with walnuts.

1. Fresh figs and fresh chevre, maybe drizzled with a big of honey.
2. Even better is my mother's homemade fig preserves (whole figs in the most delicious syrup) with either a young or aged chevre. Use that to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum.
3. Mother's fig preserves with Mancheo.

cocaloco, I have a Mission fig tree that is very abundant. If your mother would share her recipe for preserves I'd be so grateful.

I made some fig preserves last year but I was so disappointed to taste it and find that it was simply like the filling of a fig newton. Not quite what I had hoped for. The local Whole Foods market puts a very expensive and runny fig preserve on some of their cheese samples and the combination is just delicious.

lee-loreya, I wonder if the Mimolette we get is aged more. I was reluctant to sample it the first time because it looked so dried out. It was, indeed as you describe similar to a Parmesan. I loved it at first bite. But, then, you do have soooo many wonderful cheeses (while we have that awful plastic goo that has the unfortunate and humiliating name of "American" cheese) and we could simply have different palates. It is a very sweet name as well. Does it have an English translation?

I bought some this afternoon that had holes in it. I hadn't seen that before but I wonder if I had always been getting pieces from closer to the top and bottom rinds.... I'm wondering if this will have a different taste and texture.

mimolette with holes? hum, that sounds interesting, perhaps it is the unwated child of an old reggiano that mated with gruyère...
I don't think that cheese names are translated (except bleu/blue perhaps).

sad thing is that here we don't have cottage cheese (well, it is as excpetional as walnuts, see above) with the little chunky pieces of i-don't-know-what it in. We only have that bland tasting fromage blanc (is it me or does it always need huge spoonfuls of jam/honey/spices to make it tasty?)

Ooooh! Humboldt fog -- is there any fruit that tastes bad with this wonderful cheese? I like crisp, tart granny smith apples with sharp cheddar. So American, I know. The mellow yet picante flavor of firejack (Monerrey jack with bits of hot chilies) and a perfectly ripe peach in summer is another one I like. But I think my all-time fave is a mild, buttery havarti with sweet-tart red grapes.

Although I favor Swiss cheeses, I go for a nice runny brie (esp. Hermitage) on slices of apple. English people intro'd me to sharp cheddar cheese on hot apple pie - also a winner. So, my fav fruit w/cheese has got to be apples. Here in Japan we have huge, flawless apples - however, they also req a bank loan to buy more than 1 at a time._________________Travel and meet a lot of interesting dishes

brighidsdaughter, I totally agree. the humboldt fog is agreeable with so many fruit! I love unwrapping a wedge of it and having the interior closest to the line of ash so creamy i have to lick it off my fingers! yum.

Like so many things my mother makes, she never measures. What I can tell you is that she uses whole figs. She puts them in a big pot and covers them with sugar and adds a small slice of lemon. (Too much lemon really destroys the taste.) Then she cooks them slowly until the syrup is a medium-brown color and the fruit still holds its shape but no longer looks like a fresh fig. The fruit will look candied and will be a pretty brown color. I will work to get a better, more accurate ratio of sugar-fruit. What's really wonderful is the syrup and in fact I love that just as much as the preserved fruit. The syrup is divine dribbled over a hot buttered biscuit (my Southern roots showing). Many a time my grandmother would put up jars of syrup just for me.
Lucky for you to have a bountiful fig tree! I spent a small fortune buying a young fig tree that was bred to grow in my Michigan climate but it died the first year. Alas. I can't always get home to Louisiana at the right time for figs.
...............

[quote="Rainey"]cocaloco, I have a Mission fig tree that is very abundant. If your mother would share her recipe for preserves I'd be so grateful.

I made some fig preserves last year but I was so disappointed to taste it and find that it was simply like the filling of a fig newton. Not quite what I had hoped for. The local Whole Foods market puts a very expensive and runny fig preserve on some of their cheese samples and the combination is just delicious.

lee-loreya, I wonder if the Mimolette we get is aged more. I was reluctant to sample it the first time because it looked so dried out. It was, indeed as you describe similar to a Parmesan. I loved it at first bite. But, then, you do have soooo many wonderful cheeses (while we have that [i]awful[/i] plastic goo that has the unfortunate and humiliating name of "American" cheese) and we could simply have different palates. It is a very sweet name as well. Does it have an English translation?

I bought some this afternoon that had holes in it. I hadn't seen that before but I wonder if I had always been getting pieces from closer to the top and bottom rinds.... I'm wondering if this will have a different taste and texture.[/quote]